Gordon's views are fortified by a condensation of the evidence before
the select committee of the House of Commons. All this and much more is
accomplished within two hundred octavo pages, which a less economical
and therefore less praiseworthy editor would have expanded into a costly
quarto. Mr. Gordon's work has thus been planned and executed in the
right spirit: he maintains national benefits which must arise from the
adoption of steam carriages, and he seeks to place his views in the
hands of all who are immediately interested in the subject by means as
efficient as economical. We quote a few extracts, (the most interesting
to the general reader,) from the first chapter, which aims at a cursory
estimate of a few of the leading commercial, political, and moral
advantages which will accrue to the community by the substitution of
inanimate or steam power for animate or horse power, for locomotive
purposes; leaving its spirit of fairness to the just appreciation of
the reader.]
_Economy of Conveyance_.
In a great commercial country like ours, extending its ramifications to
every branch of natural and artificial produce, it is almost superfluous
to remark that a vast capital is sunk annually in the mere transport of
marketable commodities: and which is not only a loss to the seller as
being an unproductive outlay, but entails a heavy increase of expense
to the buyer also upon every article of daily consumption.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38